Breivik Railed Against Labor Party

OSLO -- The suspected killer behind Norway's deadliest massacre since World War II is a Norwegian gun enthusiast with a history of voicing nationalist, anti-immigration views, authorities said.

Police have confirmed the man they arrested late Friday in connection to a bombing in the heart of Oslo and a killing spree on a nearby island that killed at least 92 people as Anders Behring Breivik--a 32-year-old blond, ethnic Norwegian.

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Anders Behring Breivik
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The emerging portrait of the suspect as a disgruntled Norwegian loner stands in stark contrast to the Islamic extremist groups that many here initially speculated might have been behind the twin attacks in the chaotic hours after they first occurred.

Far from being sympathetic to Islamic extremism, the fair and light blue-eyed Mr. Breivik—who until recently lived with his mother in an affluent western Oslo neighborhood--frequently agitated online against European policies too accommodating of multiculturalism and what he saw as the growing threat of radical Islam.

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The suspect's identification with the far right is almost certain to ignite a debate across the region about whether the immigrant baiting populism espoused by extremist parties in many Scandinavian countries is fomenting a violent undercurrent.

"What most people don't understand is that the ongoing Islamization of Europe cannot be stopped unless one revolts against the policies that allow this to happen," an October 2009 comment attributed to him on an anti-Islamic website, www.document.no, reads.

Soldiers patrol the streets of Oslo as Norwegians struggle to come to grips with attacks that left 91 dead. Video courtesy of Reuters.

In the same post, he railed against Norway's ruling Labor party and its youth group—whose teen members died in large numbers in the island shooting spree--as "systematically terrorizing political conservatives."

On a Twitter account which he appeared to have set up just days before the bloodletting, Mr. Breivik wrote a single post that would appear ominous in hindsight, citing the philosopher John Stuart Mill: "One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests."

On Saturday, police said a Norwegian swat team found Mr. Breivik on the island of Utaya late Friday in an official police sweater and armed with a hand gun and automatic rifle after eyewitnesses said a man resembling him had hunted and shot dozens of terrified youths at a traditional Norwegian Labor Party summer camp there.

Norway's Prime Minister tours the site of a massacre where at least 85 people were gunned down after seven died in a bomb blast in Oslo. Video courtesy of Reuters.

Oslo's deputy chief of police Sveinung Sponheim noted that Mr. Breivik made no move to attempt suicide or resist arrest and calmly laid down his weapons and surrendered to the police task force. He added that the suspect has been calm since his arrest and "eager to explain himself" and the motives behind the attack.

Kari Helene Partapuoli, director of the non-governmental Norwegian Centre against Racism, noted that his online posts are common within Norway's gaining right-wing movement but still gave little clue that he would embark on such an attack. "However," she added, "there are many people who are active in that way, and it's a giant leap to this kind of extreme violent actions."

While Oslo police have remained largely silent about Mr. Breivik's possible motives and background, the 32-year-old described himself on a now-shut down Facebook page as a Christian conservative with hobbies in hunting and body-building. He also had at one time been a member of the youth movement of the Norwegian Progress Party, which is widely considered as a right-wing populist party.

According to government records, he completed his required national military service and had licenses for two guns. They also show that he had registered two years as the owner of a one-man farming business, called Breivik Geofarm, to grow vegetables and fruit.

Local Norwegian media have speculated that the business might have allowed him to amass large quantities of fertilizer, a potential bomb-making ingredient. Police, though, have not disclosed details on the contents of the bomb that exploded in Oslo's center.

Neighbors of Mr. Breivik in western Oslo described him as an unassuming man who seemed close to his mother, though few had little direct contact with him. "He was an ordinary guy who looked like anyone else," said Caroline Slåttli, a 22-year-old neighbor at the western Oslo apartment complex where he lived until recently.

Ms. Slåttli and other neighbors described Mr. Breivik's mother, Wenche Behring, as a sociable and chatty older woman who frequently praised and doted on her son. "I think they were really close," she said.

Stèphane Imbernon, a French-born manager at a nearby café that Ms. Behring frequented on a daily basis--including Friday just before the bomb blast--said she was fond of speaking of different cultures and countries and often helped him practice his Norwegian.

"It was quite a surprise when I heard about her son because she's nothing like that," said Mr. Imbernon, 34. "People around here are sad for this woman because, believe me, she's very friendly."

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